Look Out Tortall... Here I Come!
by An Angel Named Lucifer
Summary: Me, getting dropped into Tortall. I know there are zillions of other fics like this, so bear with me please. Rated for mild language, and I because I might scare some of the younger readers.
1. The Beginning

The Beginning  
  
A muffled moan came from deep under the blankets, a hand stretched out to whack the alarm with such force that it flew off the table, onto the floor. A head-shaped lump formed under the tent of blankets, then rolled onto the floor.  
  
"Oh good, your up" my mother said, as I, the head shaped lump emerged from my cocoon of blankets, now sprawled on the floor. I glared at her, and straightened my pajamas, standing groggily, and made my way into the bathroom. As I showered, thoughts floated through my mind. 6:00 was too early to be up, especially for school. Evil grade nine, why couldn't high schools be sensible and start at 9, like most normal schools? But no. it had to be 8.  
  
I stepped out of the shower, and dried off, scurrying back to my room. I peered into my closet, and decided on jeans and red sweater for my first day of high school. I dressed and made my way back to the bathroom, dried my long auburn hair and put it into a messy bun.  
  
I managed to get downstairs with out falling, and plopped myself down at the table.  
  
"'Morning kitten," my dad said. I mumbled back a response and ate an apple out of the basket on the table. I got the orange juice out of the fridge and asked if anyone wanted any, after pouring myself a glass. My parents politely declined, and I put the carton back.  
  
I kissed both of them on the cheek as I made my way back upstairs to brush my teeth and apply the usual purple eye shadow and lip-gloss. I felt better, now that I had eaten, and started singing a familiar song, that came out of my alarm. I picked it up, and put it back on my table, then made my bed.  
  
I straightened up the room a bit. It really was an interesting room. The walls were a sky blue that I had painted clouds on with a sponge and some glow in the dark paint. The ceiling was navy, with stars instead of clouds. My bed spread was the same as the ceiling, minus the stars. A paper moon dangled from the light on the ceiling. The rest of it looked like a normal 13 year olds room. My kitten, Dawn, slept on the end of my bed, looking the picture of kitty happiness. My Tamora Pierce shrine was set up on the entire first shelf of my bookcase. All of her books were there; along with a picture I took with her at a reading she put on in the nearby city.  
  
I glanced at the pile of horsie stuff in the corner and tackled that. My helmet went back in the closet, with my boots. The tack box went on the corner. Ah, the week after a show, and I still hadn't brought it all back to the barn. Pictures of my horse, Griffin, were all of the room.  
  
I grabbed my book bag and went downstairs. My mom was getting all of her stuff together for the day, she was an elementary school principle, and my dad was sitting on the couch, reading the paper. I opened the door to the basement, and started down the stairs. About halfway down, I stumbled and fell forward, closing my eyes, bracing my hands out in front of me.  
  
I felt a warm, almost water-like feeling come over me as I fell forward. I hit something solid, almost knocking the wind out of me.  
  
I opened my eyes.  
  
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What do you think? Should I continue? Please review! And flames are good, as long as you don't tell me to go and jump into a giant bubbling vat of hairspray. Thanks! Katie. 


	2. Kitten In A Salad Spinner

Authors Note: If you are good Tammy fans, you will know the diffrence between the characters floating around in my mind, and the ones she has brilliantly created. Thanks to all of the nice people who reviewed and DIDN'T tell me to jump in a vat of bubbling hairspray. *coughmarioncough* And here is the next chapter!  
  
I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a mess hall, like at camp, hung with crimson and gold tapestries, and lots of people, looking at me like I had just dropped out of the sky. To them, I had.  
  
I was helped to my feet by a young man, and was told to go to the head table. I wandered up, my eyes taking in all that was around me. I went up to the table, was poured a glass of. some liquid of a colour I couldn't determine, and was told to sit. A woman with flaming coppery hair, and, my eyes opened in shock, a furious violet gaze. I guessed the anger had something to do with the boy who shared her looks, sitting meekly in the chair next to me.  
  
"Please, just give us a minute to think about what happened. Thom, you turned a TREE into a PERSON!?" the woman exclaimed. I was starting to understand a litlle, and I could feel myself start to fidget in an attempt to stay silent.  
  
"Yes mama." Thom said, his voice hardly more then a whisper. "Master Numair told me about when he was in the Copper Isles and he turned that evil sorcerer guy into a tree and I found a book-" I couldn't stand it any more. I almost screeched, but held that in for a more appropriet time and place.  
  
The copper haired woman glared at a tall, lanky man who was running a long finger around the rim of his glass. I knew where I was, if I wasn't dreaming, I was in Tortall, sitting next to Thom of Pirates Swoop, son of Alanna the Lioness, who was currently glaring daggars at Numair Salmalin.  
  
"Excuse me, are you saying that I am a tree?" Thom nodded. "is there anyway to get me back?" Thom shook his head.  
  
"The spell is not reversible. Once its done, its done. But there is a reason you were picked to be transformed. Your parents, they are spies from our time, sent to discover what the future is like. You seemed to have grasped the understanding of what it's like to be alive in Tortall, because of the books that you have so religiously studied, and the Role Playing Game in which you take part in, every Friday night at 9:00 pm Eastern Time, called the Corus Knight School." Master Numair said. "I don't doubt that you know exactly where you are, and who the people sitting around you are. We have been wondering when we should bring you back to our time."  
  
"I think she has had enough excitement for right now Numair, I'll take her to her rooms," Alanna said. She stood, motining for me to follow her. Who could refuse? I felt like I was a little chunk of lettuce in a salad spinner. My world was changing rapidly. 


	3. My First Day

Alanna led me to my rooms and shut the door firmly behind her. "If I didn't get you away from Numair, he would talk for hours and ask lots of pointless questions," she said. She showed me around the two rooms and a closet I would most likely be living the rest of my life in. A small bathroom, and a slightly larger room with a bed, desk and bookcase in it. I spotted a familiar shoebox on the bed. Somehow, my mom must have sent my box. The box was usually stored on the top shelf of my closet. I had a scrapbook, pictures, books, and other little memories in it, from over the course of my life.  
  
I looked outside the open shutters into a little courtyard. I noticed that it was no longer light out, now just a little after dusk. "Where exactly am I staying?" I inquired.  
  
"With the Pages dear," Alanna said. I also asked about the light. It had been early in the morning before I had been changed into a Tortallan tree- turned-human. She laughed. "Time zones. Unfortunately, people forgot about them, until about 500 years before they were re-invented."  
  
I sighed. This was going to be interesting. She showed me where I could find some stuff to sleep in. Thankfully, there were soft flannel pants and t-shirt like top. I felt exhausted. After I changed, she gave me the key to my room and shutters and told me I could sleep in the next morning. She left and I crawled into bed. It felt strange, not to have the glowing stars and moon from my own room. On a table in the corner was a bowl of water and flickering floating candles. I looked out the still open window. Now I had the real stars.  
  
I woke the next morning hearing the bell ringing loudly. I had forgotten where I was for a minute and sat up, blinking sleepily. A sudden idea flashed into my head. My backpack! I had forgotten I was wearing it when I was going into the basement! I spotted a blue lump in the corner and danced across the chilly stone floor to get it, and hop back onto the bed.  
  
I unzipped the big compartment and found binder, planner, and pencil case. I spread that out on the bed off to the side of me, and undid one of the billion smaller ones. Score! My CD player and a couple of my favorite CDs. The next one: batteries. I continued on until I found some chap stick, a deck of playing cards, my Pointe shoes, a horse bean bag toy, a soccer ball key chain, and a jumbo sized bag of gummy bears. I was amazed. "How did I fit all of that into ONE bag?" I marveled aloud. "Oh God, how am I going to get it all back in?" I groaned. I remembered my box, and suddenly by bed was littered with photos, some in frames, some not, notes, a teddy bear, a soccer ball, a charm bracelet, and zillions of other things. I found a place for everything, even the soccer ball. When Alanna came in, she found my room nicely decorated with the stuff that made me feel a little less lost.  
  
"You certainly have been busy," she said.  
  
"Yup, I decided to unpack."  
  
"You did a good job. Now, come with me, you need to get clothes." I followed her out and down to the palace tailors. During the way down there, we talked about how I was going to react to living at the palace, and what I was going to do. I told her that I really wanted to be a page.  
  
"I'll do what I can. You aren't the only one who has started late this year, and there are a few more girls around." My heart leaped. I might actually become a page! Even if I didn't make it to knighthood, I still would have experienced something that I had wanted to do for a long time! "And Numair is contacting your parents. There will be ways you will be able to contact them, but we have to explain to them why there is a tree growing in their basement."  
  
"They don't know I'm here?" I asked.  
  
"They have known for a while that you were going to come and live at the palace, they just didn't know when. It must have come as a shock to them to find out that their daughter had been turned into a tree." She said as we turned into a doorway.  
  
To an old, grumpy looking man she said, "We need to get some shirts and breeches for this young lady," the man's expression turned even more irritated. I stood still as he whipped, most likely the same, knotted cord around me that he did when Alanna came for her first palace wardrobe. It only took a few minutes, and an armful of clothes were pressed into my hands.  
  
Soft cotton shirts and pants of some material I didn't know pressed against my face as I walked back to my room, listening to Alanna chatter on about how I would love palace life. I managed not to drop anything as I fished around in my pocket for the key. She left me there, and it took until dinner for me to fold and put away the clothes. I guessed that my running shoes were good enough, as I noticed I hadn't been given any new footwear. I changed into a navy shirt and black pants for dinner. I got out my soccer ball and tried to hit it off my knees and ankles 50 times. Just as I was nearing my goal, I heard a knock at the door and lost my attention and it bounced off the floor. Alanna came in, "its time for dinner." She said, and escorted me down the hall.  
  
Wow, 3 chapters! Yippee! Please review. That IS what the box is there for right? 


	4. A useful chapter for those in intrest of...

Authors Note + Disclaimer: my nice little note in chapter 2 covers the entire story. All I own is myself, and possibly some animals/people. Here is Chapter 4!  
  
I followed Alanna down the hall to the same place I had dropped into last night. I slid into a chair up at the head table, beside her. So far, she was the only person I had really talked to. I was surprised at the amount of snow coming down outside. When I asked about it, Thom, who was seated beside me, told me it was the week before Midwinter.  
  
After dinner, Alanna showed me around a bit and soon enough I knew my way around the pages wing. Then she took me down to the stables. We ran through the snow flurries and into a side door. My nose picked up the smell of sweet hay, and I felt dozens of dark eyes peering inquisitively at us. Alanna created light some how and let me wander on my own for a while. I heard a snort behind me and turned to see a large, dark bay gelding trying to nudge my back. I took the step over to his stall and spent a good half hour just rubbing the large white star, half hidden under his forelock  
  
As we were walking back to my room, Alanna asked what kind of stuff I liked to do back in the modern world. "Well," I thought for a while, trying to think of a way to explain. "I had my own horse, so that took up a lot of my time. I also played soccer, and I was about to start high school this year. Yesterday actually, but I was turned into a tree before I could go." I wasn't really sorry about it, I was enjoying my time here, and the promise of midwinter was one to look forward to.  
  
The week flew by. I was also accepted to start training as a page after the Midwinter holiday. I went down to visit my bay gelding often just to pass the time. Soon enough the day before midwinter was upon me, and I had a most unpleasant surprise.  
  
A young girl, probably a few years older then me, knocked on my door and told me to go down to one of the queen's rooms. I had no idea what was going on. Had I done something wrong? I walked through the open doorway and looked around. A woman was standing on a stool; another was circling around her, holding up pieces of material, her mouth full of pins. Thayet, I could only assume, came over and grasped my hand warmly. I squeezed back, not quiet sure what I was here for. My confusion must have showed on my face. "Surely you knew that you would need a dress for midwinter?" she asked kindly. I ended up on a stool, being pricked by zillions of pins, half naked and being watched.  
  
"Is this all really necessary? I mean, I don't even own a dress at home, I just don't have the body shape for them and-," I tried to cover myself and not get stuck by pins in the process. Thayet laughed. I didn't move, and ended up walking stiffly back to my room. If dress fitting wasn't a form of torture used in England, in the 1500's, I didn't know what was. Beheading couldn't hold a candle to it!  
  
Good? More on Monday, I promise! 


	5. The chapter in which our lovable heroine...

I grumbled about that night, because I had little red marks all over my body and they HURT! I glared at the dress with a large amount of disdain; I even sniffed with my nose in the air, and then started to laugh. A girl named Jill who I used to know did that all the time. I laughed and went outside to kick my soccer ball around a bit. I felt a little depressed, to think that my poor, already very tattered soccer ball wouldn't last very much longer. Suddenly feeling very protective of it, I picked it up and walked back to my room with it. I started seeing women walking down the halls, chattering like demented birds about having to go and get ready for the grand ball of all balls tonight. (A/N: I apologize to the birds that have fallen into this category.)  
  
I had almost gotten to my door when HE walked out of the room 3 doors down from mine. Tall, with dark, almost Kelso-like hair, but a little shorter, with dark, almond shaped brown eyes and a strong jaw and straight nose. I scolded myself after apologizing to pole I had just ran into, while keeping my eyes on the most God-like creature I had ever seen. I had momentarily turned into a fluttering ditz like creature who will follow a guy around, drooling at his heels. I opened my door, shaking my head. I really didn't know what was wrong with me. Jet lag I supposed.  
  
I practiced my moonwalk while listening to my Michael Jackson CD until I heard a sharp rap on the door. I muttered angrily when I saw Alanna and a maid with a few cloth bags in her hands. Her eyes were teasing as she strode into my room. She wrinkled the bridge of her nose when she heard the music.  
  
"Is this what you listen to? Never mind, lets get to work. You will be considered part of the Tortallan embassy, you will be present at ALL of the celebrations." Her eyes twinkled devilishly. I groaned when I saw the maid had laid out the equivalent of Cover Girl's warehouse.  
  
Half an hour later I had transformed into the fluttering ditz again. Even though I wasn't in that frame of mind, I still looked the part. The dress was as bad as when it was being fitted, due to the corset that let me take in enough oxygen so I wouldn't faint, but no more. Thankfully I only had a little face paint on. I stood up and, because I couldn't bend down, the maid put the little green slippers on my feet.  
  
I actually liked the shoes; they could double as ballet slippers if people in Tortall actually danced, which I doubted. They were green wit silver embroidery on them. Pretty cool if you ask me.  
  
We proceeded on down the hall, Alanna in a soft violet colored gown, and me in my favorite color of hunter green that was compressing my internal organs to the size of Q-tips. Alanna complimented on my hair, which had been left down and straight. If you ask me, her hair was better. We went into the ballroom and sat at the gargantuan table at one end. As we were walking Alanna whispered, "You are being formally introduced tonight. Just stand when they say your name, smile, then sit again. It's easy." Oh, my God. She said it like it was just a minor little detail. I would have killed her if I didn't know that she could snap my neck like one of those retarded Sanford pencils that bend really far and then snap in three to one part flies into your nose. I glared at her and sat down.  
  
After dinner I was introduced, and it all went pretty smoothly except I knocked over Daine's water glass as I stood. After I sat down (which I was glad I did because my knees went all shaky at the sight of HIM) I heard clapping, which I totally did not expect and saw HIM staring right at me. Alanna whispered to me that I was blushing and broke my concentration.  
  
After that, I freaked. I did not know there was going to be actual dancing, like waltzy stuff and violins and everything. Sure, I was a ballet dancer, and I took jazz too, but I couldn't dance something that wasn't choreographed if the fate of all life depended on it!  
  
I saw Alanna get up to dance with George (I was guessing it was George from the size of his nose) and knew I had no hope. Either I could sit there and look like a moron and refuse all (if any!) dance invitations I received, or I could find a nice guy who was an awsome dancer and would take all the attention off of me. I think I will go with plan B. I casually took a sip of my water and scoped around. My heart started beating faster… HE was walking towards me… closer, closer, his walk was like a jungle cat, his eyes were dark and mysterious, he was almost there… OUCH! He went for the girl beside me. It was all I could do to stop myself from bashing my head on the table muttering incoherently, so I twisted my napkin around in my lap.  
  
I made a promise to myself; I would dance with the beautiful stranger before the night was over. 


End file.
